Mumbai Jan 22 PTI About 62 per cent of surveyed parents in Maharashtra are unwilling to send their children to school from January 24 amid the state governments decision to allow reopening of schools from Monday The findings were based on a survey conducted by online community platform LocalCircle across tier-I tier-IIIII and tier-IV cities of the state that received 4976 responses Of the total 67 per cent respondents were men and the remaining 33 per cent women the survey showed Immediately after the onset of the Omicron-led third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic the Maharashtra government had on January 8 ordered closure ofall schools and colleges in the state till February 15 to contain the spread of the virus However on January 20 the state education minister contrary to earlier decision announced that schools in the state for 1st-12th standard will reopen from January 24 While the BMC has allowed schools to reopen in Mumbai the Maharashtra government has allowed local bodies to take the decision on reopening schools after assessing the COVID-19 situation in their respective areas However students will not be forced to attend physical classes where schools reopen In cities like Pune and Aurangabad it has been decided to keep schools shut while classes continue in the online mode LocalCircles has been closely tracking parents willingness to send their children to attend in-person classes in school at a national and state level since the pandemic started Amid Maharashtras announcement to reopen schools LocalCircles has once again gone back to parents to understand their willingness to send their ward to attend classes at school from January 24it said In response the majority -- 62 per cent of surveyed parents of school children in Maharashtra -- said that they are unwilling to send their children to school from January 24 However 11 per cent of citizens said Yes will send from January 24 and 16 per cent said theyare already sending their children to school LocalCircles said At the same time it said 11 per cent did not offer any opinion In summary 62 per cent of the parents of school-going children surveyed in Maharashtra are unwilling to send their children to school from January 24 amid a surge of COVID cases and high test positivity rate between 20-25 per cent in the state it stated On Friday Maharashtra reported 48270 COVID cases from 205938 tests conducted and there were 37 related deaths as per the LocalCircles Test Positivity Rate TPR in the state continues to remain high at 234 per cent it said adding with children under the age of 15 years being unvaccinated and 15-18 age group only partially vaccinated and the highly transmissible nature of Omicron many parents are concerned about sending children for in-person school In the community discussions many of them have highlighted long-term implications of COVID and the need for in-person schools to only start when TPR falls to 5 per cent or lower it stated The platform also said it will share the findings of this survey with Chief Secretary of Maharashtra and Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare so that citizens pulse is taken into account for Maharashtra as well as it is used as a reference as other states consider reopening schools PTI IAS ANU ANU